Detroit — Jeimer Candelario was befuddled.
“I didn’t do nothing wrong,” he said.
Maybe not, but technically his hard slide into second base in the sixth inning Friday was in violation of the league’s sliding rule. And it took a run off the board.
The Tigers trailed the White Sox 3-0 and had just one hit in the game at that point. Candelario came up with two on and one out and ripped an RBI single to put the Tigers on the board still with runners at the corners and one out.
Miguel Cabrera followed with a high chopper to short. Candelario went in hard at second and was out but Cabrera was safe at first as the throw from second baseman Josh Harrison pulled Jose Abreu off the bag at first.
However, second base umpire John Tumpane immediately ruled that Candelario had interfered with Harrison at the bag and called both runners out, wiping the second run off the board.
“By the letter of the law, you’ve got to hold second base and you can’t make contact with the guy or impede the throw,” manager AJ Hinch said. “John did a good job of interpreting the rule. I just hate the rule.”
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Replays showed that Candelario went into the base hard and was unable to stop his momentum. He ended up rolling past the bag and making contact with Harrison. Hinch asked for a review and the call was confirmed.
“You’re asking Candy to go 100 percent and try to be safe not knowing where they are going to throw the ball,” Hinch said. “And then when he’s sliding just past second base with no intent, not flipping him old-school, not trying to hurt him – the spirit of the rule is to protect the guy at second base. He was protected.
“The rule was applied as it should, But I’ve always had a hard time because the intent is to not get anybody hurt. That play was not going to get anybody hurt.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky